


bloom

by sunflowerabbit



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Crushes, M/M, Pre-Relationship, flowery language. like literally flowery language, spoilers for Golden Deer route
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-10
Updated: 2020-01-10
Packaged: 2021-02-25 11:00:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22191178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunflowerabbit/pseuds/sunflowerabbit
Summary: After the fight against the Empire is won, Claude comes to see how Dedue is.
Relationships: Dedue Molinaro & Claude von Riegan, Dedue Molinaro/Claude von Riegan
Comments: 20
Kudos: 71





	bloom

**Author's Note:**

> ahdjdncj i was listening to bloom by paper kites and i ended up with this...i think it's a cool dedue song for any dedue ship, so if u want give it a listen lol. hdsjkdsk there was literally no reason for dedue to not join the golden deer :(( welcome to what happened in my head. this is my canon
> 
> happy dedue week!!

“Hey, big guy. How are you holding up?”

Dedue looks up. Claude von Riegan sits across from him. He looks tired. There’s a certain tension around his eyes.

“Well enough,” Dedue replies. He’d gotten patched up by Marianne.

She’d been completely different—Dedue remembers running into her at the stables, once. She’d been crying, and she ran away as soon as she saw him. That had been the only time he’d directly interacted with her; but whenever he saw her around the monastery it was the same: dark circles under her eyes, hunched back.

The Marianne of an hour ago had approached him of her own volition, her posture relaxed and an easy smile on her face.

“Dedue,” she’d said, quiet but happy. “I can help with your wounds.”

Now, he’s starkly aware of the five years between him and his former schoolmates. The change in Marianne—and the others he’d seen around—was significant. Dedue wonders if they see the same degree of change in him, and what they think of it.

“Still not that chatty, huh?” Claude says. He smiles, small and amused. 

“I’ve never been one for small talk.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. Straightforward. I like that about you.”

Dedue raises an eyebrow. “That is surprising.”

“Really?” Claude laughs. “Nah. I’ve spent five years doing nothing but dancing around people with my words. I think I’ve had enough of small talk for a while.”

“That’s fair,” Dedue says. He’d forgotten that Claude was the Duke of Leicester now. “What do you have need of me for, then?”

“Just thought I’d see how you were doing.” Claude shrugs. “A lot happened today. I don’t think I’ve quite wrapped my head around it just yet, so. . .I’ve been walking around.”

“Ah.” Dedue nods. “I understand.”

Claude smiles again, although Dedue notes that it looks sadder. 

“So where are you headed after this?” he asks.

“I don’t know yet,” Dedue answers, honest. 

His mission had been completed, the memory of Dimitri’s anger appeased. Unrest and discontent pushes from the back of his mind, but Dedue feels too tired to dwell on it. He’s always been too tired to dwell on it, and too tired of not dwelling on it.

“Perhaps I am needed elsewhere, somewhere,” Dedue says. “Wars do not end in a day. The land must heal.”

Duscur hasn’t, a voice in his head says.

“Yeah,” Claude says, quietly. He looks strained. “The war definitely isn’t over just yet.”

Dedue frowns. “What do you mean?”

“There’s one more fight. . .to my knowledge. I talked to Rhea earlier, and there was this letter. . .” Claude shakes his head. “Seems like there’s another enemy, one to all of Fòdlan.”

“Another one,” Dedue says.

“Another one.” Claude agrees.

“I grow tired of this,” Dedue says, compelled by the tiredness settling over him like a heavy blanket. Blankets are meant to be comforting. This is not that.

“So do I, my friend,” Claude’s lips quirk up into a half smile. “But I find that company helps.”

“You consider me a friend?” 

“. . .yeah?”

“Why would you?” 

“Well, why wouldn’t I?” Claude says. To his surprise, a reddish flush blooms on Claude’s cheeks. 

“We never talked, at the Academy,” Dedue points out. “What else am I to think?”

“Fair point.” Claude clears his throat, looking left and right discreetly before sighing. “Okay. Look. I. . .kind of liked you. I mean—I mean, I know it sounds silly. It was silly. I kind of avoided the greenhouse because I didn’t know how to deal with it.”

Dedue sits, taking in this information. It did feel somewhat silly, recalling a time five years ago. After everything—those times seemed far away and untouchable. In his mind, they’d become like Duscur, somehow. 

But right now, trying to imagine Claude von Riegan, eighteen years young and shy to approach Dedue, of all people—

“Perhaps you were unable to come near, considering my status as a man of Duscur?” Dedue muses out loud. “You would not have been the first.”

Claude blinks at him, taken aback.

“Dedue,” he says, half laugh and half breath. “I would be the last person here to judge you based on where your heritage. Trust me.”

He says this with absolute certainty, solid conviction. Dedue studies him.

In his mind, old memories resurface—Claude lingering around Dimitri, Dedue catching him staring more than once. At the training ground, during axe training. Library, when he accompanied Dimitri. Every time, Claude would straighten up and look away. 

At the time, Dedue had thought it a sign of apprehension. Now, seeing his solid rejection of that reason—he was surprised to feel lightness spring up quietly in his chest. 

“Were you that hesitant to approach all your friends?”

“Fr—um.” Claude shifts uncomfortably, “Ah, I didn’t really mean as a friend—I meant like—like—wait.”

Dedue raises his eyebrows in question.

Claude tilts his head, “you’re messing with me.”

Dedue gives him a small, private smile.

Claude huffs out a soft laugh. This time, his smile comes slowly, and instead of stopping just before it reaches his eyes—like Dedue remembers it doing so, countless times—the light touches his eyes.

Dedue feels struck with it momentarily. The green in Claude’s eyes seem to brighten and bloom. Briefly, he is reminded of sprawling green fields.

“You’re. . .” Claude laughs again. “I really missed seeing you around. But I’m glad I talked to you, this time.”

“What changed?”

The brightness diminishes, a little. 

“This war took a lot,” Claude says. “From both sides. And with this last battle coming—maybe more. I have a lot of regrets, and a lot of them come back to me not taking the first step. So I guess that’s what I’m trying to do now.”

He stands, dusting off his clothes. Even in dirty, battle-torn clothing, Claude’s figure still cuts an impressive presence. 

“We’re coming back to the monastery, after things settle and we’ve gathered ourselves,” he says. 

“That’s where your base of operations is?” Dedue asks, surprised.

“Yeah. We’ve fixed it up, as much as we could, at least.” Claude smiles. “Most of the greenhouse has been restored.”

There is a question, hanging in the air. Dedue waits, unsure.

“I have enough people for the last fight,” Claude says, finally. “And I’m sure Teach will lead us our side to victory, in the end. But. . .fighting aside, it’s been nice watching the monastery fill up with people again. After it’s all over, we’ll have the restoration to look to—the land must heal, like you said. So if you want—I mean, we could always use another hand with the greenhouse and the—and you don’t have to anyway, it’d just be nice to—you know what, I’m rambling, sorry. Anyhow.”

Claude holds out his hand.

“Would you like to come with us?”

Dedue has no interest in fighting any further. He has no plans to take up his axe again, if that is what this really is. But Claude sounded sincere, and—Dedue can admit that he felt—

Claude had looked lonely, too, back then. He remembers. And he sees Claude now—brighter, somehow, even with the weight of a country on his shoulders. 

And the glimpse of the light in Claude’s eyes, the way his smile unfurled slow and sweet, like the buds of the flowers he’d tended to at the monastery—Dedue remembers wide, open fields and the warmth of the morning sun.

He remembers coming with his parents and sister in the mornings to the fields, seeing the people of his village come together to pay respects. He remembers the simple joy of people coming together, in full bloom.

“ _Duscur may be gone, but you’re still here_ ,” Mercedes had told him, once. 

Promise, although faint, blossoms in Dedue’s chest.

He takes Claude’s hand.

**Author's Note:**

> sorry dedue if this looks gay and cheesy to the viewers.
> 
> thank you for reading!!  
> i'm @sunflowerabbit (typed with a capital i in flower, not lowercase L) on twitter/@sunflowerabbit (typed normally lol) on tumblr if u want to come talk about rarepairs <3


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